Bye bye DEI goodwill days. Hello DEI spectacle days.
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Redesigning how we work. Creating more effective teams by removing organisational blindspots and bias
Part II: research notes, context and lenses re: the changing landscape of DEI in the West.
This is a research note explaining the lens & thinking behind the article “Nahum 3:6” from issue #2 .
It contains background information, expanded thinking and footnotes.
These research notes can read more pretentious than the magazine article as they are the work to get the steak on a plate, not the steak on the plate.
Border|Land is a reader-supported publication. To receive more research notes, or buy print copy of the magazine, please go here.
In the first edition of the newsletter we highlighted the first fundamental lens through which we at Border|Land Studio & GapJumpers view DEI.
LENS 1: In a multi-polar world nothing & nobody is too sacred for critical analysis
In this newsletter we'll explore a second lens that shaped the above mentioned article and is explored in more depth in Border|Land #2; the performance issue.
LENS 2: "Nothing happens", yet we can't get enough of it IF it is not boring.
Lens 2 came about as I by accident discovered the [renewed] relevance of of Baudrillard’s2 simulacrum and phases of image theory. Since this is a research note, some sidesteps before all that.
Postmodernity is like the sequel to modernity. It's what happened after the industrial, capitalist, globalised boom, leaving behind the Enlightenment's obsession with scientific truths.
Modernity can be seen as a time stamp, while postmodernism is the philosophical response to this era's vibes, which are less about nailing down capital-T Truths and more about realising that everything, including politics, society, and economics, is just a big social construct.
We're not just dealing with hard facts anymore; language and imagery have muscled their way into the ring, flexing their constructivist muscles.
Using a postmodern lens is like having x-ray vision for words, images, and symbols – it lets us tear down and rebuild concepts, like "justice," from scratch.
This is where Baudrillard comes into play with his talk about simulacra and simulation, which basically says society is more hung up on symbols and ideas than on actual, tangible facts – hyperreality.
So, what?
In a world chasing after these symbols and spectacles, people can end up feeling like outsiders in their own lives, disconnected in a spectacle-obsessed society.
And that's precisely what's happened with a lot of corporate/societal language being used today – words will journey from a genuine term describing a plight to a symbol that's pretty much doing backflips on the other end of the spectrum.
Baudrillard got this idea that reality is kind of like a shape-shifter, morphing over time as concepts and language, slide from being a very close reflection of reality to just hanging out in and amongst themselves, cooking up a new kind of reality stew - hyperreality.
He breaks it down into phases of the image:
? Phase 1: The image is like reality's Siamese twin; it's a spitting image of the real deal [pay gap analysis, blind hiring to combat selection bias].
? Phase 2: Here, the image starts playing dress-up, putting on a mask to hide or twist what's real [A.I to reduce all biases or any new shiny tech object dropped on an old problem, with an ‘analogue’ solution to score PR points].
? Phase 3: The image goes full Houdini, making us think there's something profound when there's actually a profound absence of reality [white/green/etc washing efforts, diversity training of any kind].
? Phase 4: Now, the image's cut the cord with reality; it's living in its own bubble. [weaponisation of meaning]
The term woke3 comes is a good example. "Woke" has journeyed from its Black community roots to now being a loaded word, pretty much hijacked and living in its own bizarre world of hyperreality. "Woke" is almost unrecognisable from its original meaning.
Equity is another one.4 Black Lives Matter another, potentially.
In modern business discourse, these [and other words] can be seen at various stages of Baudrillard’s spectrum.
In some contexts, it is a deeply meaningful and actionable concept; in others, it might be closer to becoming a simulacrum, used more for its symbolic value than as a reflection of genuine practices or worse for mocking because it is just stale and out of touch.
Again, so..what..?
I often tell people that Duchamp is my lawyer. He’s the legal premise to validate what I’m doing. Because streetwear started from the gesture of taking a logo, flipping it upside down, and sewing it back on again. What I’m wearing right now is a streetwear shoe. But to me it’s just as valid as a Tom Sachs reinterpretation of an Hermès bag made out of plywood. This is a readymade.
Nike designed the original in Oregon, and then the Duchamp thing was like: “How do I make this shoe different? How do I make you appreciate the shoe?” That’s where the typography comes in. Typography is the realm where you can unlock the reality of what a garment is. It’s Photoshop 3.0. If I take a men’s sweatshirt and write “woman” on its back, that’s art.
You can use typography and wording to completely change the perception of a thing without changing anything about it. This is what we learned from Barbara Kruger—you can evoke meaning by crashing two things together. And our result is not a one-off. These shoes are going to be mass-produced so kids can buy them.
Virgil Abloh 5
First of: ROI [especially now that budgets & urgency around DEI are being re-evaluated]
The further a word, concept or image is removed from its original meaning, the more it can be used to slow down, discredit or reduce [continued] impact of the change projects that those words symbolise. Again nothing new under the sun.6
However in a world where nothing is now too sacred to be critically analysed7 , orgs need to be hyper aware that the words being used will come pre-loaded with different meanings and interpretations at different stages of the image [or word] for different sections of the workforce or stakeholders.
And perhaps more importantly, we need to know at what stage the stubborn minority is, so you can focus on strategy consent not consensus building for the changes you want to implement.8
领英推荐
Not doing so will lead to leaders [again] being caught off guard.
Secondly, it helps to avoid the quick (sand) fix trap.
When trying to revive [or combat fatigue9 of] a change project, tapping into past success is often deemed an easy fix [see every re-election campaign of every incumbent elected official, ever].
Go back to the archives, drum up the progress of the the past, cater to base’s memories, and turn it into a comms/engagement thing-y to get the people enthused again about the next round of training or the latest tools to tackle the same issue.
It is a nostalgic short-term tactic that at best that might remind people of the goodwill they gave the company once upon a time when the meaning of the project reflected a reality [phase 1].
If not followed up with a contemporary execution, there is a real danger of getting stuck in “the good old days” while the world, culture, and people all moved on from you and your credibility [phase 2 +3].
A more difficult, but in the long run better approach is to go explore the initiative’s initial reason for being10 . Which was rooted in a specific time, place & culture. Can we go back and uncover its driving forces and principles and then use that information as a blueprint for a reboot?
HOW WOULD VIRGIL DESIGN “DEI”?
Once this DNA ancestry analysis is done, we are then in a better position to continuously re-contextualise the projects, through new meaning-free words [found in new lived experiences, not management consultancies] or through constant seasonal adaptations.
Think “Re-editions,” “sequels + prequels,” “capsule collaborations” where the issues resonate with employees in a way that creates something that new and familiar, not old and embarrassing.11
All fairly standard practice in the fashion & film industry [where ironically their own HR/EDI departments act as stale as any other industry], and known to people who work in HR [when they stop acting their job title].
Conclusion
Things are stale. Yes many groups are still experiencing inequality. The big change now compared to say, 5 years ago, is that less and less of these groups are finding resonance with wider audiences.
Preaching to the choir, hoping to brute force your agenda to the top, it seems that various groups have moved from campaigning to pure exercises in power politics.
To be fair, in the short run, that can be quite effective. Especially if you don't care if the support is based on self-censorship and not cause alignment.
However, in the long run, to avoid too much blowback from obvious reactionary movements and score settling, we need communication [in the broadest sense, not just words, but especially experiences/spectacles] that helps things along. Better said, that moves people en masse.
That might sometimes mean updating old words to reflect new meanings. And sometimes, we might need a completely new vocabulary, context or tools to start anew.
But more and more we need to update the pools of inspirations that HR/EDI teams dare to draw from when tasked to solve “age old” issues in new forms.
In a coming time where craft/technical output can and will be lowered to “almost zero barrier”, developing a distinct POV [that cuts through the noise, stalemate and boredom of the DEI category] is the new “learn to code”.
A POV rooted in permanent history, but transient in its application to the situation at hand.
I took humanities late, so I never had an art class. I didn't know I was into it. Then I took an art-history class in my fifth year of engineering. I learned about the Italian Renaissance and Caravaggio, and it rewired my brain12 .
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2 https://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/baudrillard.htm#:~:text=In%20Simulations%2C%20Baudrillard%20categorizes%20the,whatever%2C%20it%20is%20its%20own
9 https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=587101509&q=diversity+fatigue&tbm=nws&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjm_82IrO-CAxWliP0HHWSwCTUQ0pQJegQIChAB&biw=1276&bih=590&dpr=1